Sharifs secret deal stands void due to Big Powers reluctance: Editorial

A secret deal signed in 2000 by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif now stands void reportedly because an unnamed guarantor of the agreement is no longer willing to interfere in Pakistans affairs.

Islamabad, Aug 28 : A "secret deal" signed in 2000 by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif now stands void reportedly because an unnamed guarantor of the agreement is "no longer willing to interfere in Pakistan's affairs."

The Daily Times in its editorial said that besides Saudi Arabia and another unnamed party, Saad Hariri of Lebanon, there was also a mention of a "big power" in the "Confidentiality Hold Harmless Agreement."

"This 'big power,' it is being said, was hovering behind the scene as the deal to save the Sharif family was struck," the paper said.

"One report says that it was US President Bill Clinton who began to worry about the Pakistan military's antecedents of killing civilian rulers it deposed in the past. Thus, it is quite possible that the waning of the interest of the 'big power' in President (Pervez) Musharraf, and the mounting of suspicion about his ability to control and end terrorism in Pakistan, may have caused the change in the mind of the 'guarantors' in Saudi Arabia," the editorial said.

According to the daily, the Saudi response has a way of being moulded by its own self-interest, which is focused on what America is able to do for King Abdullah in a Middle East threatened by the rise of the Shia states in his neighbourhood.

Pointing out that the American forces have been attacking the Al Qaeda and Taliban targets inside Pakistani territory, while Islamabad denies it, the paper said that the import of all these developments has not been lost on Sharif.

"It now develops that he (Sharif) is actually under no pressure from anyone outside Pakistan not to make his home voyage. As far as the domestic scene is concerned, the Supreme Court has supported his return and he is inclined to agree with his party that he and his family should return to Pakistan before Ramadan," noted the daily.

However, what might give him pause is the threatened action by Musharraf to arrest him on his arrival to the country.

But even this is unlikely considering the fact that if Musharraf puts Sharif behind bars at this stage then he will get just what he wishes to avoid: a lot of destabilisation.

Instead, the President wants a vague thing called "reconciliation," but the time for that may have passed as far as Sharif is concerned, the editorial concluded.

ANI